Gear Fighter Dendoh

Gear Fighter Dendoh is a 2D Action/3D Fighter hybrid from Bandai. It is based on an anime, but then, aren't all of Bandai's games? The concept is interesting and could make for a wonderful game. The question is, does this game belong in the trash with all of Bandai's other licensed drivel or can it overcome the licensed game stigma and surprise us with a good game? Read on to find out.

As stated above, the game is separated into two main styles, 2D and 3D. The 2D mode plays out like your typical run of the mill sidescrolling Action game. It should be noted that a couple of the stages adopt a forced scrolling horizontal shooter play style, only, instead of shooting, your mech launches itself across the screen and kicks enemies. When you reach a boss the game switches to the 3D engine for some head to head action. The 3D mode plays like an average fighting game. More on those later though, let's discuss the various modes of gameplay. Well, by various I mean two: Story mode and Versus mode.

Story mode is 9 stages long and lasts roughly 2 hours. The story is played out through spoken and written Japanese via still pictures and dialog boxes. Thankfully, you can skip much of it and get right to the action, if you so choose. Being unfamiliar with the source material, I cannot say for sure if the story was pulled from the anime or if it is completely original.

Stage layout in story mode is simple. There are three 2D scenes and one 3D Boss fight per stage. The first two scenes are sidescrolling action/beat 'em up levels. The third scene is a mini boss fight using the 2D engine. The fourth scene is the boss fight using the 3D engine. Almost every stage follows this layout. If you happen to die during a stage, you can choose to continue at the start of the current scene you were on. There appears to be no limit to the amount of times you continue. You can save the game at the end of each stage, so you don't have to play through in one sitting. Not that that would be a monumental feat, considering the game's rather short length.

The 2D action levels are clearly the high point for the game. If they were done right, it would almost be enough to forget about the 3D boss fights. However, I'm afraid that the game is just downright simple, in both design and difficulty. You only use two buttons for the core gameplay: jump and attack. Don't get me wrong, you can have a great game of this type with only two buttons. River City Ransom, anyone? Gear Fighter just doesn't cut it. It doesn't help matters much that the game is so dreadfully easy. If the simple nature of the gameplay doesn't bore you, the mind numbingly easy enemies will.

Your repertoire of moves is obviously limited. You have a simple 4 hit combo that is performed by pressing attack four times in a row. In addition to that there are a couple Street Fighter-esque special moves and you can grapple enemies. Once you grapple an enemy, you have the option of throwing them left, right or up and you can also jump in the air and perform a pile driver. If the thrown enemy happens to collide with another enemy it will cause damage. In a similar manner, you can pick up parts of a dead enemy or various objects lying around such as a large pole. You can swing these like a weapon or throw them at an enemy. A couple enemies will drop a large laser weapon when they die. You can pick this up and shoot at other robots with it until it runs out of ammo. It's a nice change of pace from the hand to hand combat which dominates the gameplay. It's a shame there weren't more moments where you had weapons at your disposal.

You can also hold down the attack button to perform a charge move. This gives you a boost of speed and allows you to guard some attacks. However, this move drains your mech's batteries. That's right, your Mech runs on batteries. Two AA batteries by the looks of it. Your batteries will drain until you release the attack button. Running out of batteries does not kill you, it just disables the charge move. To recharge your batteries you have to collect little battery icons that enemies often drop when defeated. The only other function that uses battery power are data files, which I will explain next.

Similar to Mega Man, whenever you defeat a boss you will earn his weapon, Known as a data file in this game. There are seven different data files in all. At any time during the 2D action stages you can press triangle to bring up a menu. From here you can choose to use a data file. Using a data file will result in a devastating screen filling attack, but it also drains one whole battery. It's best to use these at the mini boss if you have enough battery power. Each of the data files represents an animal or creature such as a Lion or Boar. The resulting attack will be delivered by a robotic version of the creature. For example, the Unicorn data file summons a Unicorn which charges across the screen damaging anything in it's way.

As if the game wasn't easy enough already, before each boss fight both of your batteries will be completely recharged and a small amount of health will be restored. If you have any data files you will then have the option of choosing one to install in your mech. The data file will slightly modify the mech and change it's moveset completely. Each data file has unique attacks, special attacks and two final attacks, also known as super moves. As noted above, the boss fights use the 3D engine. Sadly, your mech moves very slowly and sluggishly. Some genius at Bandai decided that keeping the extremely limited control setup of the sidescrolling action would be a good idea for the 3D fighter gameplay. So, what we have is a slow, sluggish and very limited battle engine. How deep can a fighter be with one attack button? About as deep as a rain puddle in a barren wasteland. Boring and painful are two words I'd use to describe the boss battles. The slow pace and limited control ruin any chance these battles had.

Which brings us to the Versus mode. Versus mode allows you to go head to head against a human opponent, or the CPU, using the 3D battle mode. Only the standard mech and one arena are available from the start. As you progress through the story mode you will unlock data files to modify your mech with and new arenas to fight in. This would be a nice addition if the fighting engine didn't suck so bad. Why waste your time with this simplified button masher when there are many competent fighters available for this, and other, systems.

As far as graphics go, the environments in the 2D levels are bland and uninteresting. Parallax scrolling is very rare, if not nonexistent. Animation? What's that? The game takes place on a still, lifeless image. Your mech has a washed out look to it, as do all of the enemies you will face. On the upside, they animate smoothly enough and there is no slowdown that I noticed. Always a plus. The 3D graphics in the game are what you'd expect of Playstation circa 2001. No glaring problems, considering the hardware. Merely average.

The music kind of hangs out in the background and is neither annoying nor engaging. It wouldn't sound out of place in a giant robot anime. Voice acting is typical anime fare and sound effects, like music, are just "there." I've never seen the anime so I do not know if they used the same vocal talent or if any of the music comes from the series. Just like the story, I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Language barrier? It's an action title, and a decidedly brainless one at that. The main menus are in English with little bits of Japanese here and there. Nothing troublesome for most importers. The only thing you will be missing out on is the story and you don't need that to be able to play the game. All you have to do is hold right and occasionally press jump or attack. Hardly something that will require a knowledge of Japanese.

As far as replayability goes, I suppose the 2p versus mode is a nice addition. Well, it would be if it wasn't so simple and it was actually fun. Again, why play this when you can play something like King of Fighters? The story sequences can be skipped, so if you want to replay the 2D sections you can do so without having to sit through all the dialog. Overall though, there isn't much reason why anyone would want to replay this game once they've gone through it. It is an extremely linear game with no incentives to replay, such as branching paths or even a score meter. You unlock all the goodies on your first go, so there is no need to go through again, apart from wanting to replay the game. Personally, I have no desire to play the game anymore.

I'm as big a fan of simple action titles as the next guy. Perhaps even more so, but this game is just too braindead for it's own good. Add in the slow pace and stiff controls and you've got a recipe for disaster. Some of you may be intrigued by the Mazin Saga style gameplay, I know I was. Trust me when I say that Gear Fighter just doesn't pull it off. That's not to say the game is a total disaster, it's still leagues better than Cyborg Kuro Chan, another Japan only 2D action title on Playstation. Then again, poking yourself in the eye with a rusty knife is more fun than that travesty.

Seriously though, there is a little fun to be had with Gear Fighter Dendoh, if you can turn your brain off for a bit. There were moments here and there where I was getting into it, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a very lackluster game. Not surprising considering it is a Licensed game from Bandai. It's almost a requirement for them to be bad. Such wasted potential.

©2003 Ed Finnegan

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